Triagist’s diary: teething and a blood clot
03-09-2025 -It’s 5:30 a.m., Sunday morning, somewhere in the distance I hear the sound of the alarm clock. Is that mine? Yes! Phew, is it time again?! I turn off the alarm on my phone and get out of bed right away.
The whole house is still in deep rest, but hup! Clothes on, make-up on, sandwiches, something to eat quickly and then it’s already 06:05 am. High time to get in the car.
Together with a few other colleagues, I am one of the ‘far travelers’ among us, I need at least 45 minutes to get to work.
At 06:50 I arrive in Heerenveen, park the car and quickly walk upstairs. Or no, I’m going to take the elevator today. I grab a cup of coffee (cappuccino, size L, medium strength) from the vending machine and walk to the TriageCenter of Dokterswacht. The place where all medical emergencies come in in the evening, night and weekend.
“You can get out!” my colleague shouts to the night colleagues, which means that we, the morning shift, are going on. It is now 7.00 am. The phone rings right away and I answer. “Good morning, Dokterswacht Friesland, what can I do for you?”
We are starting
The phone calls in the next hour go in all directions. I speak to an older gentleman who probably has a blood clot in his brain (for which I am sending an ambulance) and then someone with a blocked ear, who really has to wait until tomorrow with my advice. It’s not that I don’t want to help him, but complaints that can wait until tomorrow, we leave in the emergency service to tomorrow as well. Then your own GP can help this man with his ear.
At 08:00 am, four more colleagues join us and they also take a seat behind a computer at our TriageCenter. This makes me feel good. Together we will go back to work this service. Because with an oblique eye to the telephone queue, extra help from colleagues is needed.
Waiting
We don’t have to beat around the bush: sometimes the queue is quite long. If you need urgent medical care, it can be frustrating and even dangerous if you have to wait a long time.
And I feel that even more now that I have just spoken for 7 minutes and 49 seconds with a mother of a child with teething. With my advice about ice creams, teats in the freezer and Dentinox from the drugstore, this mother can move forward again.
Although this is not the kind of health question that makes me very happy.
Don’t get me wrong, I am very happy to help her.
I am a mother myself and know how unpleasant it is when your child is in pain. But if I pick up the next phone call and I speak to someone who has a severe allergic reaction to a wasp sting and is short of breath because of it, then a phone call about teething really feels unnecessary. It is a question you can also ask other fathers or mothers.
I hope my frustration is not noticeable on the other end of the line (although that is sometimes difficult to hide), but I am actually always in this dilemma during my shift. On the one hand, I want to help everyone, but I also know that some people need my help more than others.
Around 08:40 the queue has already risen to 23 minutes. Try to quickly filter out the emergencies there…
Collaboration
I like that we have a reasonably good line-up today, this has been different in recent years. Really good triage nurses are hard to find; This job is not for everyone. And I think about that on Sunday morning at 07:40, haha!
Ah, that’s where the doctor comes in. It’s that friendly GP I like to work with, nice. The GP runs a shift at the TriageCenter to help and support us as triage nurses and to check and approve all the advice we give. We triage nurses are trained to estimate how urgent something is and together with a general practitioner we ensure that we do our work as carefully as possible. Together you see and know more.
At 09:00 two more colleagues join and one colleague works from home for a morning. Very nice! It feels good to do this with a team.
First a break and another cup of coffee: cappuccino, size L, medium strength.
I have a 10-minute break, so after peeing for a while, the coffee and a cookie from my bag, I put on the headset and turn my phone back on. I quickly glance at the queue on my screen, 47 minutes. Gosh, that queue is long today… Can I pick out the real emergencies quickly enough?
No time to think about it.
“Good morning, Dokterswacht Friesland, what can I do for you?”
.. and on!
Before you know it, you’re 34 phone calls and a morning later. It is 12:20 pm, time to check whether all tasks have been completed, to read in the system what the patients who have been for a consultation eventually received for diagnosis or where the GP has been with the visiting car.
I do this mainly to learn from and to take this with me for the next service. And of course to briefly discuss with the GP whether there is anything special with ‘my’ patients.
Nothing, everything handled. Great, then I can go home with peace of mind, because at 12:30 pm four new colleagues have come in to help the patients properly. Good luck everyone, see you tomorrow!
I grab my bag, walk downstairs and start the car. It was great to drive home for three quarters of an hour with the radio on. Everything I heard today passes in my head for a while and when I drive into the driveway at home, my head is empty again and family life can begin. First hang up the laundry… “Hey guys, you guys are having fun playing outside!”
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